Recently, a new -- at least for this area -- industry is showing dramatic growth in the region. Despite a drop in dairy numbers nationwide, dairying is on the increase in the High Plains, especially in the portions of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. And economic development agencies and organizations in these and other areas are actively recruiting new dairies.

Why are dairy producers moving to the windswept High Plains? “Simply put, more room and lower costs,” says Jeff Keown, extension dairy specialist at the University of Nebraska.

"Feed costs will run $1.25 to $1.30 less per cow per day in Nebraska and Kansas than about anywhere on either coast,” Keown says. “And electric rates in Nebraska, for example, are about what they are in California. Both Nebraska and Kansas have been 'milk deficit' areas for several years, so the market price for milk is generally higher, as well."

Another key factor is the shortage of expansion acreage in more densely populated areas like Southern California. “There are 225 active dairies just in Southern California that have been ‘zoned’ out and will have to move or shut down,” says Keown. “Builders want the land for housing and development. In Washington state, the Federal government is set to declare four of five major rivers as endangered salmon breeding area. And most of the state’s dairies are located in those river valleys. It’ll be tough for them to hold out there.”

More High Plains states like Kansas and Nebraska are actively recruiting new dairies. Vic Van Camp, a retired veterinarian and former mayor of Colby, Kansas recently helped staff a booth at the California Farm Equipment Show in Tulare, California. The Booth was sponsored by the western Kansas Rural Economic Development Alliance (wKREDA), a group representing 46 Kansas counties.

"We’ve got a dairy operation coming into Thomas County from Pennsylvania,” says Van Camp. “It’s a couple and their four sons. The two older boys are working with their folks and want to get into their own operation someday, but land where they were in Pennsylvania was not available or just priced way out of reach by developers. So they’re moving to Kansas. They’ll be milking about 800 cows to start, but they expect to increase that eventually to several thousand head."

Whatever the reasons, rural development experts in the High Plains and mountain states see dairying as a great growth opportunity. “We’re all looking for more value-added products for out agricultural output,” says Van Camp. “Dairy production is an excellent way to add value to all the corn, soybeans, and hay we grow in western Kansas. And, our new dairies are typically family-type operations, like the one from Pennsylvania and that’s good for our communities."

Janet Anderson, executive director of Southeast Colorado Enterprise Development Inc. agrees. "They see new dairies in their area as a win-win for their communities and they’re putting incentives on the table to prove it."

Adds Kolby-Ricken, “The community as a whole is open to support whomever is interested in locating here. We know we have some real strength to offer dairy producers. We would also benefit from dairies coming here,” she adds, “by diversifying our economy, which is already ag based."

Keown cites the positive economic impact of new diaries for rural areas. “Every dairy cow is going to consume $1,000.00 worth of corn, corn silage and hay per year. Plus, each dairy is going to employ a worker for every 100 to 125 cows, on average, and most of the dairies are paying around $8.50 to $9.00 an hour, plus benefits.” Increased milk production also helps assure that processors will continue to maintain and perhaps add to dairy plant facilities, most of which are in rural communities and typically pay competitive wages.

Nebraska too is in the midst of a dairy expansion, primarily in the western portion of the state. Although the number of dairies in Nebraska dropped almost in half from 1992 to 1998, state and community promoters have reversed the trend. In fact, a national survey found that Buffalo County, in central Nebraska, was rated third best county in which to operate a dairy farm. (Number one was Marathon County, Wisconsin, followed by Tulare County, California.)

Three new dairies have located in the Kearney area in the past 18 months, with several more in the pipeline, according to Ron Tillery, president of Buffalo County Economic Development Council. “We determined about four years ago that dairy manufacturers were importing as much as 40% of their fluid milk form outside the state,” Tillery says. "We put together a regional committee to see what we could dot to correct that situation. The group discovered that the 12 dairy plants operating in Nebraska collectively made up the fourth largest customer of the Nebraska Public Power district, a power wholesaler headquartered in Columbus, Nebraska. Not only that, but the milk processors are mostly located in rural communities and often are the largest employer in town.

"We also learned the average Nebraska Dairy producer at the time was over 60 years old and milking an average of 65 cows," Tillery says. “The dairy enterprise had become, in many cases, more sideline to row crop production. Nationally, however, the industry was transitioning to larger dairy operations with more efficient economies of scale and the Nebraska group used this information to formulate a two-pronged program."

"Number one was to convince our existing diary operators of the advantages of increasing their herds, and then assisting those who wanted to remain active in the dairy business to up-size their operations," he says. “Secondly, because our state milk deficit represented somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 cows, we undertook a major recruitment effort to bring new dairies into the state.” 

Committee representatives traveled to farm shows and dairy events in California, Washington, Idaho and other states, talking to producers about relocating to Nebraska. “Nebraska has a lot of advantages to offer dairy producers, including abundant, low-cost feed supplies, plenty of water, reasonable environmental regulations, an ‘agriculturally literate and tolerant population’ and wide-open spaces, especially in the western two-thirds of the state,” Tillery adds.

He says it took 18 months or so to start seeing results, but in the past two years, 18 to 20 new dairies have been built in Nebraska, with more on the way. “We’re still a milk-deficit state, but we’ve certainly reversed the trend,” says Tillery.

When the program first got underway, Tillery says some of the existing dairy owners felt threatened, but the development group went to great lengths to offer the same assistance to longtime Nebraska dairies. “We even worked it out so dairy producers could qualify for low-interest loans through the Nebraska Department of economic Development, and we helped some producers get Small Business Administration loans for upgrading or building new facilities,” he says.

Posted with permission of the Dairy Producer. Burchfield is a freelance writer from Nebraska.